Drowning
by leona the lioness
Summary: Hermione is drowning in the pressure. so when ron decides to yell at her what happens when she breaks? and who will be there to save her and put her back together? warning: suicide mention. but no one dies. minor cursing. rated t because im paranoid. written in the hbp time. fred is still at school. i swear the story is better than the summary. one shot mkay bye.R


It was a regular, sunny day at Hogwarts, the birds were singing, the kids were avoiding classes (due to skiving snack boxes) and Hermione and Ron were in yet another fight.

"Won-won, Hermione doesn't like me!" lavender whined into her boyfriend's ear, "she said I'm annoying!"

"She did? Hermione said that?" Ron asked, eyes wide and angry.

Lavender faked a sniffle, "you don't believe me?" she wailed, burying her head in her long arms and giving out the fakest sobs the world had ever heard. But Ron, being the idiot he is, bought it.

"Oh it's okay lav-lav," he crooned to his 'distraught' girlfriend, "it'll be okay."

Just then, the portrait hole swung open to reveal, none other than Hermione Granger, her hair frazzled, and dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in weeks, she appeared to be struggling slightly with her heavy bag that's weighed down in books, scrolls, and potion vials. But mainly books.

"YOU!" Ron yelled across the common room, so enraged he missed the smirk lavender sent Hermione.

Hermione froze in mid step, half in, half out of the Gryffindor common room. She blinked at Ron, eyes wide. "Yes?" she asked cautiously, taking into note that her friends face was as red as his hair, and he looked utterly violent.

"You jealous, annoying, know-it-all, book worm. You just can't stand the fact that I have a girl friend that's not you can you?" Ron snarled, far from done, "you are the most stuck up, by the book girl I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, and even if you did happen to get off that high horse of yours, and remove the stick from your ass, no guy would even bother to look at you because you are so drab and just plain _ugly_, and frankly, you are, as Malfoy would put it, a filthy. Little. Mudblood."

Numerous gasps rose from the common room and harry potter himself was dumbstruck. Hermione's eyes were wide, and she had tears on her face, "Well, it's nice to know how you feel about me." She whispered, as she felt her heart break, she bit her lip in an attempt to stop the tears which now poured down her face.

"Yeah. It's nice to know be able to knock the greatest bitch of her age down a few pegs." Ron retorted

"You can't knock someone down a few pegs when theyve already hit rock bottom." Hermione whimpered before she fled the common room.

"Thanks won-won." Lavender said "after all, why do you need her when you've got me?" she whispered in his ear.

"Ron. . ." Harry said, shaking his head

"What Harry? She hurt lavender!" Ron exclaimed defensively.

"When would she have time to do that? Between researching for us, stressing over her tests, and doing errands for the teachers, when would she have time to even look at lavender in a dirty way?" Harry growled, pissed at his friends stupidity.

"She did it last night in the dorms!" lavender wailed, in tears again.

"She was in the library last ni-" Neville began

"Shut up all of you." Ron growled. "If you were really my friends you would support me! Instead of taking _her_ side."

"Ron-" harry started, but it was too late because they to, left the common room.

**_Meanwhile in the prefects bathroom_**

Hermione looked at herself. Ron was right, she was ugly. Her hair was to bushy, her eyes were so plain, her face was blotchy and red, she was short, not skinny enough and pale, she didn't have an hourglass figure like lavender, and her nails were chewed to the max.

_"Maybe I should just end it. . . no one would miss me. And they'd get over it. . . they aren't even my friends, they just use me for research. Maybe I should . . . yes. . . I think I should. Just a simple spell . . . a stupefy would suffice, I could fall into the water. . ." _ the young girls thoughts went darker until her hands were on her wand and the water of the bathroom was filled.

She lowered herself into the lukewarm bath, pressing the wand to her temple she said, "Stupefy." then she fell into the water, and sank to the bottom

The last thing she heard was "HERMIONE!" and then everything went black.

"Mione, Mione please, please wake up. Please!" Fred Weasley begged the motionless girl lying in his arms, covered with his cloak. "Accio water." He said, pointing to the general area her lungs would be.

The liquid rushed from her lungs and out of her mouth, Hermione rolled over, coughing, and puking up water and bile alike.

"Hermione!" Fred exclaimed, hugging her, and getting himself sopping wet

She shoved him away and fixed him with a glare that would have scared moldywort himself. "Why?" she spat out "why did you save me?"

Fred was taken aback, "because, you were dying!"

"EXACTLY!" she yelled, her voice hoarse, "I wanted to!"

"What? Why?" Fred asked, shocked that the girl he'd grown up with wanted to kill herself.

"because . . . it's so hard." She said. Tears welling in those beautiful, brown eyes, "every day, I study my arse off, I help students with homework, I do research for harry and Ronald. And it's so hard. It weighs me down. And on top of all that your git of a brother had to go and call me an ugly, stuck up, mudblood." tears were now falling faster, "but the thing is, it's true, I'm not pretty, I'm a terror to even be around, and I just want. To. Die."

"Mione," Fred whispered, "you are the strongest person I've ever met, you're brave, and smart, and fiercely loyal, you're downright scary when you need to be, and you are drop dead gorgeous, and I'm so sorry I haven't seen what you're going through."

Hermione looked up at the redhead boy huddling over her. "You- you think I'm pretty?" she asked, eyes widened in disbelief

"No. I think your beautiful." Fred told her honestly.

"Thank you. For everything." Hermione said to Fred. Still disbelieving that Fred Weasley, the heartthrob of the school, thought of her as pretty.

"Of course." He replied, smiling down at her

"Fred. . . I'm going to do something a little crazy. And if you don't feel the same that's fine. But I have to try it." Hermione told him.

Then she leaned up and kissed him.

Fred, at first, didn't respond to her, but then he began to kiss her back, and they engaged in a dance as old as time, he reached up, entangling his hand in her still damp hair. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, as he was about to dart his tongue across her bottom lip he realized where they were, what she was wearing, and that he was taking advantage of the Gryffindor princess.

He pulled back and looked at her, really looked at her. He noticed she had green and gold flecks in her eyes, she had lighter strands or blondish, and red hair intermingling with her dominant brown colored ones, he noticed she had the tiniest sprinkling of freckles on her nose.

"Mione. . . you are so beautiful." Fred told her in a matter of fact tone. Hermione blushed, "I think. . . I think I'm going to ask you out Hermione, but I know you can do better than me, so I don't know if I should."

"Fredrick Gideon Weasley. I cannot do any better than you." She said, "Because you are the best."

He looked at her again, such awe written on his features that she blushed a deep crimson again.

"Mione, do you want to go out with me?" he asked gently, not wanting to scare her away.

As an answer, she yet again kissed him, this time gently, but not any less passionate, "I'd be an idiot if I said no."

"SHES WHAT?" Ron yelled

"She's dating Fred." harry told him in a bored tone.

"She can't be dating Fred! That's absolutely impossible!"

"Oh it's completely possible Ronald." Came a female voice from behind him

When Ron turned around he saw Hermione, with Fred's arm around her waist, she was smiling brighter than ever.

"You can't be dating him!" he screeched at the girl

"And why not Ronald?" she asked him.

"Because he's my brother!"

"Last time I checked, you didn't get a say over what I did. You yell at me and then when I'm happy, with a guy I care about, and you flip out. What is wrong with you?"

Ron made a spluttering noise, looking to harry for help, the boy who lived simply shrugged his shoulders and said "Ron, if you wanted her, you should have treated her right."

Hermione's mouth hung open at this. "Ronald. You have some serious mental problems if you think being a git to me will help. But I'm glad you were. Thanks to you, I found out how sweet Fred really is."

"Hermione! Hush love, that's our secret, can't have it going around I'm a softie!" Fred yelped jokingly.

"You! How could you do this? She's my best friend!" Ron turned on Fred.

"Friend?" Hermione growled. "FRIEND? How dare you. You call me a mudblood, and a book worm, and ugly, and a know it all. And now you claim we're friends?"

"well-"

"Ron. Stop. She's my girlfriend now. And I've found I'm very attached to her so I won't give her up easily." Fred snarled threateningly.

"but-"

"He's right Ron. Just stop." This time it was harry.

"hermio-"

"Shut up Ron." Hermione said simply, "now run along and kiss lav-lav like a good little boy, or I swear to Merlin, I will hex you."

Ron turned on his heel. But then swung around and hit Fred in the nose, before scampering off to his dorm, for fear of Freds retaliation

"FRED!" Hermione yelped, grabbing his arm to steady him.

"I'm okay Hermione, as long as you're here, I'm okay." Fred whispered in her ear, sending delightful shivers up her spine.

She tilted her head up and kissed him in the middle of the common room. "Then I guess you'll have to be okay for a very, very, long time." She told him in mock seriousness.

Fred didn't reply. He just kissed her.

"I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
